Shopping carts are often equipped with child carriers, providing a large chamber for carrying groceries or the like, and a seat for carrying a small child, or to hold a portable baby carrier such as the removable portion of a car seat assembly. Because of the large number of shopping carts that must be available in a store, it is necessary for the shopping carts to stack together in nesting arrangement. Nesting of the carts together results in like carts being inserted into one another to place at least a portion of the basket of one cart into that of another. Typically, this type of design includes a gated rear wall for the basket chamber, which lifts by the force of a basket of another cart being pushed against the gated wall, providing passage of the forced cart. It is important that the child seat of such a cart will not obstruct the ability for stacking of carts together, yet be readily accessible for the user to deploy for his or her child. This limitation of the device, to permit stacking of carts yet have an accessible child seat, poses a significant obstacle for designing a suitable device.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,813,725; 2,931,662; and, 2,890,059. The shopping cart devices of these patents, dating back to the introduction of the features in the 1950's, are very similar to the current popular cart and child seat devices. Some modifications to this design of cart devices have been introduced, such as that which disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,811, without departure from the overall design and arrangement of the child seat mounted in a shopping cart.
More recently, there have been child seat designs introduced that address needed redesigns by placement of the child seat outside the shopping cart, providing the option of still utilizing the popular type of shopping cart as developed in the 1950's. Examples of these more recent devices with the seat secured outside the cart basket are depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,548 and 5,918,891 In the '548 patent, a conventional shopping cart is utilized, with attachment of a carrier to the rear of the cart. The design of the '548 patent, however, will not permit stacking of carts together, since the rear attachment blocks access to the rear gate of the cart. The '891 patent, on the other hand, provides a child seat mounted to extend outside the cart basket, and below the rear gate of the cart. Further, the '891 patent describes a child seat positioned outside the basket that also has a low center of gravity due to the seat bottom being located below the bottom of the cart basket, outside the basket itself.
Though various designs of shopping carts have been introduced through the years, it has been found that the industry is resistant to material departure from the conventional design of cart and child carrier. Aside from some level of use of the '548 patented device, there is an apparent resistance for the industry to embrace new design choices that depart from the popular design in use since the 1950's. This popular shopping cart design is constructed with a lower frame and a rectangular basket chamber that is narrow at one end and widens at the opposite end, usually at the rear portion of the cart. Front and rear casters secured to the bottom of the frame to provide mobility of the cart, and a handle is provided at the rear of the cart for the user to push the cart. The basket has a central chamber made up of basket walls and a gate pivotally mounted to serve as a rear wall, such that carts of similar design may be nested together whereby a second cart is pushed into the back of the first cart. Child seats for this type of cart usually have a secondary back wall structure that moves forward and rests in a forward position forming a V-shaped rear wall configuration. Popular versions of this type of cart design has a rear wall made of wire or plastic lattice, and the secondary wall being made up of an elongated support member secured to the bottom of the rear wall and extending to the top edge regions of the cart. The support member is secured at the bottom by a hinge that permits the support member to be deployed away from the wall to form a large V-shaped arrangement between the rear wall and the support member. A seat platform is attached so that it may be deployed to thereby be located between the diverging rear wall and the support member. Examples of this type of cart and child carrier device is shown at manufacturer web sites, such as the following: www.totecart.com; www.unarco.com; www.unitedsteelandwire.com; and www.technibilt.com.
This type of cart and seat assembly design, however, results in the child seat positioned with a high center of gravity, due to inherent limitations of the design. Since the seat is secured to the support member, which is deployed in a large V-configuration by pivoting about the hinge at the bottom of the rear wall, the seat must be positioned in the upper portion of the basket. The height of the seat is thereby dictated by the overall design, because the seat must be at a height in which the V-shaped rear wall configuration has ample depth to hold the seat platform between its diverging parts. This location for the child seat is believed to be potentially dangerous for children if a user were to leave a child unattended. This is due to the fact that the center of gravity for the child resides in the upper portion of the cart, and the fact that the child is seated near the open top edge of the cart basket. The resulting dangers include possibility of the cart tipping over due to unexpected and movement of the child's weight, such as a child leaning over or pulling on something outside the cart. Another potential danger results as a child not properly secured by a safety strap may lean out of the cart or even stand on the seat platform and fall to the floor. Therefore, with the current popular design of shopping cart, the user must be in constant attendance to prevent such occurrences. Depending on the circumstances of the retail environment in which the device is used, the need for constant attendance at the cart and constant attention by the user, may not be possible or practical. Neither the user or the retailer finds benefit from this required level of care and attention. And, apparent from the statistics regarding shopping cart injuries, there is a significant need for an improved device to reduce the accidents that result.
According to a report of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, between 1985 to 1996, an annual average of 21,600 children under five years of age were treated in hospital emergency rooms due to falls when in a shopping cart. The report indicated that the frequency of fall related incidents has increased from 7,800 in 1985 to more than 16,000 in 1996. This report also indicated that 66 percent of the fall victims were treated in hospitals for head injuries. And, of those treated for head injuries, more than half suffered severe injuries such as concussions and fractures.
Therefore, there is a need for a new design for a shopping cart, one that provides a nestable cart with a lower positioned collapsible child seat. There is further a need for such a shopping cart device that otherwise is very similar in operation and appearance to existing popular devices, retaining the familiar structure of a swinging rear gate and a child seat mounted on the inside of the rear gate. In short, there is a need for a shopping cart child seat that is positioned in the lower portion of the cart basket when in use, and which is secured to a rear gate in a manner configured to collapse to permit stacking together of like carts. There is further a need for such a child seat to be user-friendly and yet have the benefit of being positioned deeper within the shopping cart basket to prevent the child from falling out of the basket, while also providing a suitable location for a user to place an infant carrier (such as an infant car seat) for transporting by the shopping cart. And there is a need for a new child seat assembly, configured for locating in the lower portion of a cart basket, which is readily secured to the inside of the cart as a retrofit to an existing cart design, such as by replacing the rear gate with a newly configured seat and gate assembly. The present invention satisfies these needs.